Seanad debates
Tuesday, 24 June 2003
European Convention on Human Rights Bill 2001: Report and Final Stages.
The Senators are proposing in the amendment to introduce a super-added requirement or standard which, in my view, would only confuse the issue before the courts. Under the amendment, the courts would be obliged to consider "any person or body certain of whose functions are functions of a public nature, but in relation to a particular act, such a person or body shall not be an organ of state if the nature of the act is private." In this amendment, a similar attempt is assayed to provide a standard whereby we delimit what is the public sphere from the private sphere.
No comments